


New Beginnings

by mage_cat



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bismuth ships Amedot, F/F, Gen, Lapis gets called on her bullshit, Rated for suggestive dialogue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 14:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17143850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_cat/pseuds/mage_cat
Summary: Now that everyone knows that Steven carries Pink Diamond's gem, it is the beginning of a new chapter in the story of the Crystal Gems on Earth.More ship and character tags will be added as the story continues.Fair warning: If you see Lapis as your angel daughter who never did anything wrong, this is not a story for you. Don't like; don't read.





	1. Rebuilding

Peridot blinked at the sight of the unfamiliar stone room she had regenerated in. She was seized by momentary, panicky thoughts of capture until she noticed Bismuth at a workbench with a pencil in hand and an easy smile.

“Hey there. I hoped you'd be back soon. I want a second set of eyes on these plans before I start anything. Glad to have those diamonds off your form?”

“Yes,” she said emphatically, fingering one of the stars at the hem of her new tunic. She had paired it with leggings and boots in her usual shades of green. It was all structured with angles that echoed her gemstone but still comfortable and practical for gardening and tinkering. “Where' s everyone else?” She asked as she looked around. There didn't seem to be any other people here, but there was a staggering variety of weaponry.

“Lapis Lazuli is next to where you were,” Bismuth answered gesturing to the shelf Peridot had been standing in front of. “Everybody else is taking care of Diamond diplomacy on Homeworld. Me, I gave two seconds' thought to the idea of smiling politely at the tyrants and decided that the best thing I could do was make sure Steven came back to an intact house.”

“Phrase it like that and I'm glad that I got left behind too.” Peridot hadn't been surrounded by this much metal since before she had first tapped into her powers. She found herself smiling. “What is this place?”

“My forge. I had been keeping near the Temple, but that Ronaldo guy was hanging around nearby. I decided to go somewhere else before he started to try and tell me how to do my job again. He has very strange ideas about armor. I don't really want to hear how he thinks building construction works.”

Peridot pulled a tall stool over to the workbench. “He has strange ideas about gemetics, too. Steven told me he was interested in the subject, so I tried to teach him some things. It seems that, once he thinks he's right, he's very stubborn.” With Peridot seated on the stool, the two Gems were much closer to eye level with each other. “This is small compared to how Homeworld builds workshops, but I'm impressed.”

Bismuth beamed. “I learned a lot building this place, the first thing that was ever really mine.”

Peridot sounded slightly wistful as she said, “There is something special about that.”

“So, gemetics, huh? You were a Kindergartener?”

“One of the best in the sector.” It wasn't bragging if it was true. “It's why I was chosen for the mission to Earth to check on the Cluster. Well, that and I think Moss Agate was happy to not hear from me for a while.”

“Just what is the Cluster anyway? With everything happening, no one had time to explain it to me.”

Bismuth's eyes widened as Peridot filled her in. “That's...”

“Horrific. I know. But you know how Homeworld is. We're not people, we're resources, and that goes double if we're shattered.”

“I really hate the Homeworld system.”

“I'm willing to bet that you would like the Era 2 version even less. Now let's see these plans.”

Bismuth began to describe how much of the beach house was still standing, the urgent structural repairs needed, and the improvements she saw room for before Peridot began to introduce refinements and her own ideas. She cackled when she heard that the Diamonds' Hand Ships were also wreaked on the beach and available for salvage. There were materials Bismuth had never heard of in there that they were free to use.

During a lull in their planning, Bismuth said, “This is just me getting my bearings, but are you and Amethyst an item?”

The line Peridot was drawing faltered as she lost then regained her grip on her pencil. “Wha... what makes you say that?”

“Just a feeling I got, and I'm guessing that means 'no'.” Bismuth smirked. “Though that blush tells me you kinda wish otherwise.”

“Amethyst and I are close, but not like that.”

“Hey, there is nothing embarrassing about being interested. I've had a lot of fun with Quartzes. Strong curves that get soft in interesting places, eager hands, and there's something about all that hair, and you were lucky enough to find one just your size.”

The blue blush was creeping to cover more of Peridot's face as details of Amethyst flickered across her mind's eye. “I never thought about things like that before I came to Earth. I'm still getting used to it. One of the first things I ever liked on this planet was making Amethyst laugh. I'm not sure she feels the same way though. It might just be the usual Quartz gregariousness.”

Bismuth shrugged off the topic. “Maybe. You've spent more time around her than I have. Speaking of things you've been around to notice, do you know why they made the living space so far above the high tide line? If it's just to line up with the Temple's door, then I have some ideas for the space underneath.”

After they had discussed more details of the rebuilding plan, Peridot asked, “So you have a lot of experience with relationships?”

“I've had a lot of friendships that could get very... intimate. Nothing as serious as Ruby and Sapphire or Pearl and... Rose. Dang, what are we even supposed to call her? But I was the smith, so everyone met me soon after they joined up. Since everyone knew me, plenty of people thought of me when they wanted to... explore their new freedom. I was really popular with the Quartzes. I'm big and brawny enough that they never had to worry about hurting me if they lost control, but the way builders like us tend to think and the way soldiers tend to think are different enough that it made me interesting.”

“So you never had serious romantic feelings for anyone?”

“I had a hopeless crush on someone who was too devoted to someone else to notice I was flirting with her.” It was Bismuth's turn to blush.

“It wasn't Ruby or Sapphire was it?”

“No. Stars, no. My type may be more mental than physical, but I do kind of have of a minimum height requirement. No offense.”

“None taken. Trying to figure out if Amethyst is flirting with me is romantic distraction enough.” She gave a long look at what they had drawn up. “We should get back to the beach so I can see exactly what we can salvage before we go any farther.”

* * *

The beach was still littered with pieces of the barn. Some of the wood fragments had actually broken off the beach house, but while the hole in the house had been covered with a large, blue tarp, the contents of the barn were less protected. Even at a glance, Peridot could catch glimpses of objects she had thought were gone forever.

“I had hoped to see the barn again, but not like this.”

“You attached to the place?”

“I lived in it for most of my time with the Crystal Gems. At first we were all temporarily camped there while working on the drill to reach and disable the Cluster. When that finished, I wanted to stay a while longer to repair some damage that happened in the interim. Before I could really start on that, Lapis needed a place to stay, and the barn was the best option. She wasn't a Crystal Gem, but she didn't have anyplace else to go. I decided to make it my mission to convert her. I bent over backwards, literally, but she still left at the first sign that the Diamonds may have been coming. She took the barn and everything we both had made with her.”

“It seems like Lazulis have a way of getting to people. I knew a Crystal Gem during the War who worked with one and was real broken up about not getting her to defect when she did.”

“Maybe that's why Jasper got so hung up on her too,” Peridot mumbled to herself.

Hours turned into days. Salvage turned into construction. When Steven and the Crystal Gems returned from Homeworld, they found Bismuth, Peridot, a beach house that would have been completely repaired and finished if the two hadn't gotten perhaps a touch carried away with expansion ideas, and Lapis still regenerating in her gemstone.


	2. Call-out

Amethyst watched as Peridot worked on some component to finish repairs on the house, pausing with a worried glance every time she knocked against the blue teardrop-shaped stone at her elbow.

“Hey, Per? Why don't you let me look after Lapis for a bit? You can focus on your project while I get both of us out of your way.”

“You're not in the way.”

“It's nice of you to say that, but I can't shake the feeling. Watching Lapis would make me feel like I'm doing something useful. Please?”

“Of course. I can't think of safer hands to put her in.”

Amethyst took Lapis' gemstone with her to a rocky outcropping down the beach that she was fond of and passed the next few hours with Greg's old copy of _Passions of Xanxor_. Morning had turned into afternoon before the stone rose into the air and began to project Lapis' physical form again.

The cut of her dress hadn't changed much, but the diamond motif that had once dominated it had been replaced with an abstract pattern that, if Amethyst squinted and tilted her head the right way, may have looked like a star for a moment.

Lapis quickly turned around, taking in Amethyst, the distant Temple, and the otherwise empty beach.“We're not shattered. I'm guessing we're not captured. Where are the others?”

“Steven and Peridot are fine,” Amethyst doubted that Lapis cared about Pearl or Garnet, and she hadn't actually met Bismuth yet, “but I'm not telling you where either one of them is until we have a talk.”

“What could you possibly have to talk to me about?” The two of them had, after all, spent exactly zero time alone together before this moment.

“Do you have any idea what you put Peridot through leaving the way you did?” Amethyst asked with a ferocity that Lapis was sure she had never heard in the laid-back Gem's voice before. Then she remembered that she had. Once. When they had thought the squad of Rubies sent to find Jasper had actually been searching for Peridot to bring her to justice for insulting Yellow Diamond.

“Easy for you to stay and fight,” Lapis said. “You had never dealt with the Diamonds before.”

“I don't blame you for running. This wasn't your planet. If you didn't feel you had enough reason to stay, that's enough reason to leave. You did _not_ have a right to make Peridot feel guilty for not going with you or to take all of her stuff. Now answer my question. Do you understand what you did to her?”

“I know she had a hard time of things after I left. There's an observation orb in the Moon Base. It doesn't carry sound, but the body language was pretty clear.”

“You were stalking Peridot?” Amethyst's voice was sharp before. She was shouting now.

Lapis was clearly trying to keep her tone mild, but she couldn't mask her defensiveness. “Calling it that makes me feel even worse than when Steven called it spying.”

“Good! You should feel bad when you do skeevy stuff like that. It's how you know you did something wrong so that you remember to try not to do it again. I've been through the process enough times. I know how it works!” Amethyst took a breath to calm herself. She managed, at least, to return to the tone of voice she started the conversation with. “I get that you've had a hard time of things since the war, but guess what? You are not the only person on this planet that applies to. It is _not_ a get-out-of-jail free card to walk all over people. And I know that the funniest, brightest Gem on this planet was left alone with you, and you wrung her out until she turned into a sack of dirty laundry hanging over the side of Steven's bathtub. It killed me to see her like that and to have to put her back together again.”

“I did not ask for anything from Peridot!”

“You didn't _have_ to. It's _Peridot_. She can't _not_ try to fix things. After everything with the drill was over, you were the most broken thing she could find. If you really didn't ask anything from her, I hope you at least spent some of that time in space figuring out what made her think you wanted everything you got from her.”

Lapis and Amethyst locked glares until Steven rounded a large rock a moment later. “Oh hey Lapis! You're back. Did Amethyst fill you in on what happened while you were regenerating?” Peridot's head peeked around the rock as well.

“No,” Lapis answered. “We hadn't get around to that yet.”

“Amethyst, I want to get your opinion on something.” Peridot pointed behind the rock. “Over here.” Amethyst rounded the rock just as Steven started small talk with Lapis. “You didn't have to say all that to Lapis,” Peridot said.

“Um, how much did you hear?”

“We came into hearing range around the stalking.”

Amethyst began to rub her arm. “Well, if Lapis is going to be around everyday, I kinda did. If I didn't say it now, I would think it every time I saw her, and one day she would say or do something to tip me over the edge and I would end up saying something I would actually regret. Like I said, I've been through the process enough times.”

Peridot stepped closer and took Amethyst’s hand. “You really think I'm the funniest, brightest Gem on Earth?”

Amethyst smiled, a little nervously. “Well, I wouldn't lie about it.”

“I never thought I would see someone defend me like that.” Peridot blushed blue. “I could kiss you right now.”

Amethyst's cheeks darkened. “I, uh, I wouldn't stop you if you tried.”

Later, there would be joking arguments about who actually kissed who first, but in the moment all that mattered to either of them was the taste of the other's lips, the feel of the other's skin, and the scent of the other's breath. Peridot's head buzzed and Amethyst's chest filled with a warm tingle that she recognized, knowing it could lead to something entirely new.

The moment was broken when a loud “What!” split the air, startling them apart.

“I guess Steven just dropped the Rose Diamond news,” Amethyst said.

Peridot turned and leaned against Amethyst, wrapping the other Gem's arms around herself. “I still want to help her, you know. You were right that I can't stop trying to fix things.” She turned her head to look at Amethyst. “Will you stay with me this time? Make sure I don't break myself again in the process?”

“Am I allowed to glare at her?”

“Only if she deserves it, but I think you will prove to be a good judge of when that is.”

“Deal. You wanna stay in my room tonight? I could show you my coolest junk, and we could kiss without getting interrupted. I might even get to be the smart one for a change and teach you some advanced techniques.”

“You're on. I've always been a fast learner.”

Amethyst gave her a peck on the cheek, a promise of more to come. “That's my nerd.”

 


End file.
